I was on my way home from work and listening to a local radio show, the Dave Glover show, when the host began talking about people on Facebook.  You know the type….out of work and supposedly working hard to find a job.  They are the ones who post constantly on Facebook that they are looking for work.  Then you start reading through their wall posts and see that they have been playing Farmville, Mafia Wars, or a similar game all day.

I’m certain that spending all day tending an imaginary farm is not going to increase your hire-ability. Farmville is a way for game developers to make money.  It will not help you find a job.  It will not even help you be a better farmer if that is the job you’re looking for.

When you are a job seeker, you do not have to spend 24/7 looking for a job.  But, you do have to realize a couple important facts:

• It is a full-time job to find a job. This means you need to have a plan each day of what you will do to network, search job sites, research companies, call and visit companies, join industry groups in your area, etc.
• What you do online can help or hurt your job search. Networking online with targeted motives can help boost your search.  Playing games like Farmville will help you send a message to your network.  The last thing you want others to think is that you are not serious about finding a job, or that you’re lazy or not looking.  Keep in mind that when you play games online at Facebook, it posts updates that are timed and dated.  Is that the message you want your network to see? Definitely not. It’s ok to take a break for a game or two of some sort, but I recommend choosing one on another site that won’t post updates all day to your profile.
• You control your destiny.  Spend your time online creating positive profiles about yourself.  Share information that will help you get hired.

It is not a bad thing to be online when you’re a job seeker.  In fact, it’s quite good.  But make sure that you are conscious of the information you’re sharing so that you find the job you want more quickly.  Otherwise, you might want to just get a job in Farmville.

What comes to mind when you hear the words social media?  Do you think of sites that are popular today like Twitter, FaceBook, or LinkedIn?  Do you think it is just for teens or that it is just a tool to decrease employee productivity?  Or, can you see past all the negative hype and see how to exploit social media platforms for a competitive advantage?

That’s right, social media can be your key to competitive advantage.

It is a tool that can help you as an individual or as a business leader to stand head and shoulders above the rest.  Let’s be honest, in today’s lagging market, we need a way to stand out in a positive way and to reach our current and potential clients and customers.  So, how do we get there?  Social media. These are free tools that can be quickly learned and applied in ways that will communicate your brand.  If you’re like I was, then you just don’t make the connection how that is possible.  Let me share my story.

About two years ago, I participated in a webinar that demonstrated how to use Twitter.  I sat through it wondering how in the world this would pertain to me in my role as a human resources director.  I did not understand the concept of finding people with a certain background to follow.  I did not understand why someone would want to follow me and see what I’m doing moment by moment.  And so, like many, I signed off and did not touch it again.

Fast forward to a year ago.  I loved reading human resource blogs and started my own human resource blog.  I realized that many of the bloggers I was communicating with used Twitter so I signed back in.  I followed HR bloggers and other HR professionals and saw them sharing relevant HR articles on trends and core competencies . I began tweeting (sharing information in 140 characters via Twitter) each time I wrote a new post on my blog.  My followers would re-tweet it, meaning they would send it to all their followers.  I quickly saw my blog stats rise and simultaneously, my Twitter followers increased too.

I was marketing myself!

I fell into a situation where I quickly learned the power Twitter has to connect you with other like-minded professionals in your industry or with a certain market segment that you would like to reach.  The one caution I have is that the Twitter community is one not to take advantage of.  You have to be genuine and willing to share and communicate, not just push out your personal or company agenda.  Otherwise, you will be labeled a spammer and will quickly crash and burn.

Since that time, my blog has seen exponential growth, my personal brand as a HR professional has flourished and I have the opportunity to speak globally about the power of social media.

So, have I piqued your interest in getting involved with social media?  Add your questions or your own story in the comments.

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend a truly inspiring event.  The St. Louis Children’s Hospital Employee Gala.  This is the highlight of the year for the entire hospital from an employee recognition standpoint.  It is a chance to come together to celebrate each employee and the contributions we each make to do what is right for patients and their families.  Why was this an inspiring event?  Several reasons:

• First, any time an organization spends time, money, and effort to recognize and thank employees for the work they do, it’s a great thing.  More and more, we’re hearing that companies are not doing this for a variety of reasons.  For me, it was inspiring not just to have an event to get the employees together, but to take time out to recognize milestone anniversaries of five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, and forty years of service.  Yes, I said FORTY years of service with St. Louis Children’s Hospital.  That is amazing.  No only that, there was one employee in attendance who has been there for fifty-eight years!  How many companies can boast longevity like that?
• It was also a night to honor the Leadership Award winner and the President’s Award winner.  They used FaceBook pages to highlight each nominee and made time to talk about each person while showing their “FB page” on the screens for the audience.
• The emcee talked about the new iPhone app “Kid Care“.  Click the title to link to the app.
• The theme of the evening was “Connecting the Best” and every part of the presentation portion of the night was centered around using social media.  As you can imagine, I was thrilled.

Here are a few examples of how social media fit into the evening’s festivities.

It may be a bit challenging to see, but for those people who use Twitter, I’m sure you can see that there is a Twitter profile up on the screen at the event.  They showed us the @STLChildrens active profile on Twitter so we could see what was being talked about online.

When you’re running a 24/7 hospital, there are always going to be employees who have to work and are not able to participate in events like the Employee Recognition Gala.  So, they arranged to use Skype and gathered some of the employees together so we could talk with them live during the event.  That’s what is being projected on the screen in this picture.  It was certainly fun for the approximately 1,300 in attendance to see live.

I’m proud to work where we’re using social media.  We are on the path and I’m sure we’ll hit some bumps along the way, but at least we’re out there….CONNECTING with the Best!

Thank you and kuddos to the planning committee for the Employee Recognition Gala.  Be sure to check out the St. Louis Children’s Hospital FaceBook page and become a fan!

The employee life cycle is something that is a hot topic for management gurus.  Google it and you’ll see.  There are articles upon articles out there that tell you the steps of the employee life cycle (the 4 steps, the 12 phases, and so on, and so on).  I don’t want to discuss or debate that.  What interests me is how social media can potentially affect an employee all the way through the employee’s life cycle.

Recruiting

Of all the professions using social media for work purposes,  recruiters are ten steps ahead of the rest of the world in terms of their effectiveness.  They have mastered sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook, and blogs to be able to creatively source candidates.  They have found ways to search large amounts of information to identify candidates for hard-to-fill positions.  They are still posting positions on the traditional job boards and on company websites, but they are using the social media sites to get position information to go viral.  For more information on what top recruiters are doing in the social media space, check out RecruitingBlogs.com.

From a candidate perspective, they have more sites than ever in which to find jobs.  They are using key word searches, just like the recruiters, to find positions that may not be readily available anywhere else.  Candidates are getting to know recruiters directly on Twitter and LinkedIn for example, where they can actually establish a relationship before a position is necessarily even open.  The networking opportunities for both the recruiter and the potential candidates are abundant.

Onboarding

In many organizations, onboarding is not given much thought.  New employees are given an employee manual, their new stapler and tape dispenser, and shown where the bathroom is.  End of onboarding.  Ok, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration.  But, I don’t think I’m far off base when I say that companies could use social media as a way to bolster the onboarding process.

One way is to point out the company’s stance on social media during the onboarding process.  This could involve encouraging new employees to check out any social media site the company uses.  If the company has a FaceBook fan page, tell the new employee to consider becoming a fan.  Maybe you have a special page for training, tell them about that.  Does the company use Twitter?  Share the information with employees.  Does your company have videos on You Tube?  Point the new employees there as well.  This will position the company as forward-thinking because they are embracing a form of communication that is becoming more popular with all generations in the workforce.

Training and Development

This is an area where there is certainly opportunity.  You will need to be mindful of  how much you share about your internal training with the outside world.  However, it can really create a buzz online and be a strategic way to position your company to potential candidates and employees as a company that uses the tools creatively.  Having a training session?  Create a Twitter hashtag and have participants tweet during the session.  Use FaceBook to create a group after the training event to keep people who attended connected.

Communication and Collaboration

One great way to collaborate with colleagues is to use online tools to do so.  Again, being mindful of what information is truly going public vs. being held in a way that is only viewed by employees.  Sites like Yammer are a great way for companies to use social media type skills and tools to communicate internally.  I wrote about it here and here. Need to collaborate or communicate during the life-cycle of a project?  Why not set up a Wiki or use GoogleWave?  Tired of sending documents back and forth through e-mail with multiple edits being tracked?  Set the documents up in GoogleDocs so everyone on the team can contribute and share.  Make sure to check with your IT pros first though and make sure that using the tools is acceptable under their guidelines.

Performance Feedback

There are sites popping up every day it seems that use online sites to give feedback.  It can be daunting to know which to turn to.  One I love is MeritBuilder.  This is a site that allows you to give and receive feedback that can be posted publicly or held privately and it actually follows the individual employee through their career….even if they leave your company.  Be sure to check them out on their site, or via Lance Haun.

Exiting the Company

Even when an employee chooses to leave your company, make sure to encourage them to continue to stay connected via social media.  Consider setting up an alumni group on LinkedIn for them.  Maybe even a FaceBook page dedicated to alumni.  HP, Yahoo, and AG Edwards are all companies that are using FaceBook alumni pages to stay in contact.  Who knows, by doing this, you just may get people to return to the company.

So, what have I missed?  How are you using social media during your employee’s life cycle?  Share it with us in the comments.

So, you’re reading this blog.

That likely means that you are embracing social media to some degree because many people still do not turn to blogs for information, nor do they know how to find them.  The one thing I keep hearing is that as we become more connected with reading blogs, connecting on FaceBook, networking on LinkedIn, and building relationships on Twitter, people are overwhelmed.

I’m constantly asked how I find the time to blog and use social media.  My answer is simple, I schedule time and I use some simple tools to help organize my online experience.  I also make choices about which platforms I use daily vs. those I only check on occasion.  I read a great post by fellow blogger Naomi Bloom where she lays out her own personal social technology policy for 2010.  I recommend checking it out because it makes sense that we would each need to do this in order to maintain sanity.  So, here are some tools I use to make it all work easier.  Some of you will be very familiar with them already, but I know a majority of people do not use them yet.

1. Blogging- I read a LOT of blogs.  The only way I can do this is to use Google Reader.  Google Reader allows you to aggregate all the blogs and other news sources you like into one place.  Then, anytime a blog or news outlet posts, it updates in your reader.  I’ve found that by checking my reader in the morning, then around lunchtime, I can stay on top of many trends in my industry as well as the current news.  It’s also a great way to search for information in the publications I trust.  My advice is to click here on Google Reader and set one up.  Then, subscribe to my blog and those on my blogroll.  We use easy “subscribe” buttons so you can put us in your reader.

2.  Choose a daily social media outlet- I love to use Twitter daily because that is the way I get additional HR information I may miss in my reader.  It also let’s me speak directly to the HR and recruiting pros on a regular basis so I can develop closer relationships with them.  They share their knowledge and make me a better HR professional.  The way to manage this is to use a tool like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite.  Once you use Twitter, you quickly realize there are certain people you would like to follow more closely than all the thousands of people you may actually be “following”.  By using Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, you can create specific lists of those people you find most relevant and have a separate column of only those people’s tweets.  It’s a great tool.  You can also have key word searches for all the things that are important to you.

3.  You can’t do it all every day- Realize this and you’re golden.  I can’t possibly use all social media sites, it would be impossible.  So, FaceBook and LinkedIn are sites I check on a weekly basis.  Depending on your situation, you may choose one of these sites as your daily and Twitter as something you check only occasionally.  The point is that you cannot do it all, so don’t try.

So, that’s my advice for any reader who is new to all of this.  If you have any strategies to share, add them in the comments.